#MikeBrown did not “bum rush” the Ferguson police officer

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Good morning:

LLMPapa is back!

He has a unique way of getting to the truth in a heartbeat and in this video he exposes the lie that Michael Brown stopped suddenly after running 35 feet away from the officer’s vehicle, turned and “bum rushed” him.

According to his girlfriend, the officer fired but Brown “kept coming and coming.” The officer kept shooting and the last shot to Brown’s forehead finally put him down.

Brown must have been running in place because his body was found 35 feet away from the vehicle.

The officer executed Mike Brown and lied about it to his girlfriend.

The District Attorney for St.Louis County will be presenting evidence about this shooting to a grand jury today. He is going to have some ‘splainin’ to do do, if the grand jury does not indict Officer Darren Wilson for the murder of Mike Brown.

Ferguson has our attention. The fight for justice for Michael Brown is one of the recent tragedies to highlight the systematic targeting and oppression of people of color who are faced with hyper criminalization and police harassment on a daily basis. The subsequent reaction of the police force has forced the nation to realize the harsh, brutal reality of militarizing our police and enabling them with weapons of excessive force.
The loud call coming out of Ferguson, Missouri has become a national rally to action.

Those in the Ferguson community are working to address these systemic problems and force our nation to seek justice for Michael Brown, while representing countless other victims. We need to support their work in the ways that will best serve their needs.

There are a number of ways to support the movement growing from Ferguson, here are a list of resources and requests from organizers, organizations, and media on the ground:

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Support to the Family: Justice For Mike Brown
There are two ways to donate directly to the family of Michael Brown—
online, you can use the Michael Brown Memorial Fund. Organizers have confirmed this as the official donation portal with the family’s attorneys.

If you prefer to support the family with a donation via check, the Brown family has established a memorial fund Fifth Third Bank. You may drop off a check at any of their branches or mail a donation. Please include “Michael Brown Jr. Memorial Fund” in the memo line:
Fifth Third Bank
8013 West Florissant Ave.
Jennings, MO 63136
Call the branch at 314-685-3200 with any questions.

Bail and Legal Fund for Ferguson Protesters

A bail and legal fund has been established to support the people who are being arrested in Ferguson, MO for exercising their constitutionally protected right to assemble and protest against systematic use of excessive force against black and brown communities. You can donate via PayPal.

Resources to Sustain Protests and Local Movement Building

On the ground, protesters and organizers in Ferguson need support and supplies. Leaders need resources for their outreach and organizing, street medics need supplies for injured and exhausted protestors, protestors need food and water, every morning volunteers are organizing cleanups, crowd control needs bullhorns, folks needs signs, and citizens need equipment to document the events—and police brutality.

Donate to the local, immediate needs and support of building long term infrastructure at the Hands Up, Don’t Shoot Campaign Infrastructure Fund here.

Long-Term Organizing: Organization for Black Struggle

Organization for Black Struggle (OBS) is in Ferguson, MO. They are asking for the resources to hire an organizer dedicated to organizing youth in Ferguson and manage the movement building happening on the ground. A PayPal account has been set up separate from our regular donations, to specifically support the Ferguson organizer. You can donate here.

Provide food support through the local food pantry:

According a local Ferguson church, the food pantry in Ferguson is running short on supplies because of the unrest. Please, donate to the food pantry at St. Stephen’s Episcopal church in Ferguson.

Support Independent Media Coverage

Our friend, Elon James White, host of This Week In Blackness, which is normally produced from the Daily Kos offices, and his crew, are broadcasting live from Ferguson. Their work is providing valuable, independent, black media to the world. Please consider supporting their efforts by donating here.

For those who want to take direct action:

Build a local movement in your community, to address these issues locally, connected in solidarity with the work happening across the country. If it isn’t already happening, help make it happen by doing the following things:

National Call in Days
New Media/Social Media
Local Solidarity Demonstrations
Participate in Rapid Response Mobilizations
Collect stories of police brutality in your community and share in our story bank
Create art for this moment

For those of you who want to get involved in your community movement, please fill out this form to stay connected to the national movement. You can tell them what skills you can bring to the movement.

For those who want to be in Ferguson:

Right now, the situation is still organizing and the need for some folks with particular skills are the most necessary:

As you can imagine, there are a lot of moving parts that local organizers need to manage, so if you DO NOT have these skills, right now, the best thing you can do is show solidarity and provide support from your home geography.

To be properly oriented and connected with local organizing infrastructure and make the best use of your skills organizers ask that folks fill out this form BEFORE coming to Ferguson. Then, local organizers will contact you to discuss the details and properly integrate volunteers and activists into the local infrastructure.

The final request from organizers in Ferguson is this:

In order to ensure we leverage our resources and capacity effectively, it is really important that you NOT come to Ferguson without filling out the link and being properly connected with local leaders.

This information has been compiled from public documents being used by organizers, in addition to other sources. If there are additional requests and updates, please drop them in the comments below and we will continue to update this page.

To me that video looks like: Guy acted a little crazy, cop car was there, cop got out of car, guy continued to act a little crazy (nothing that would have caused me to do anything more severe than crossing the street to put a little distance between us) and then nine shots are fired and the guy is killed, after which a bunch of squad cars roll in, yellow tape goes up, the dead man is handcuffed by two officious looking assholes, and the bystanders are all ordered (mostly rudely, but in one case politely) to get out of the area, so no more can be seen.

Our haters, and we appear to have a legion of them, hacked into her account blocking access to it and diverting people to another page. She can no longer access her account.

We stored copies of legal documents pertaining to her case that tie certain people to criminal acts and they are very upset. We believe they are responsible, however, with as many haters and stalkers as we have, we cannot be certain.

This just happened recently. We haven’t had time to unravel the problem at the site.

Crane’s new computer also was hacked and destroyed.

I think most people have good experiences with flickr. We did until this happened.

I think the one in red was the clerk. He was standing the closest. The man who videotaped it starting from the beginning seemed to be making fun of Powell until police rolled up as Sophia mentioned

I hear Powell say shoot me several times and shoot me mofos. Does anyone else agree that the police are yelling drop the gun?? I swear I think they are screaming drop the gun (that we know he didn’t have.) The videotaper says they got guns but he’s referring to police. That knife was so tiny just like the anatomy of those 2 police killers.

I just can’t even believe it. If I had witnessed this I would have screaming, probably been on my knees crying and scarred for life. To see his body fall so far that it ends up at officer’s feet breaks my heart. The number of shots is sickening.

It seems to take a long long time to get to the root of this evil. It’s been over fifty years since the US federal court ordered one little black girl, one very brave little black girl, to enter first grade in the first integration of two schools in New Orleans.

This is off topic, but not in that Ruby Bridges, with her escort of federal marhalls, faced 200 hateful, ignorant, loud and threatening to kill her each morning on her way into the schoolhouse.

I’m saddened by those images, those in positions to make a difference in this latest case of murder of an unarmed black person must have the will to make a difference. The prosecutor may not be capable of this challenge.

Back to little Ruby, last evening I happened upon the Ruby Bridges Story, in full on youtube. Tonight, this interview with the psychiatrist, who wanted to help Ruby, to be there for her as she, at only 6, faced this gauntlet of hate towards her, and he had no idea even why.

Psychiatrist Robert Coles, speaks about Ruby and her parents. It’s a long struggle, when will the ignorance end? When will the prayers work?

Wow ay2z never seen this video. Dr. Robert Coles wrote a book, The Story of Ruby Bridges, and it’s used in schools today. Teachers assign students to read and discuss. It’s filled with illustrations and tells Ruby’s story. I think it’s a great idea for 3rd graders, even 5th graders to learn and understand Ruby’s struggle and open the discussion on civil rights.

I don’t know remember ever being assigned to read anything in HS. Every child, teen should know these stories, both Ruby’s and James’ stories and struggles. And many more.

This shooting of Kajiemi Powell is something you would not have seen in South Africa during Apartheidt! Because it was so open, so obvious, so much a sign of “occupying forces will execute the enemy for any reason.”

The way the police then clear the area and push the people blocks and blocks back and say “turn around go” you can see that (a) they do not want witnesses; and (b) they do not feel that they have to give an account of what they have done.

This is a disgusting, disgusting video. This is — OMG the police are so horrible to look at, with their smug murderer chins and their taut, fat stomachs under the blue fabric. Monstrous!

There seems to be some sort of endemic mental illness among certain types of cops and their supporters. They could have done a milltion things differently and taken that young man to the hospital for a psych evaluation.

There were unarmed ordinary people who strolled on by that man who the police shot.

How can anyone with a straight face say that these cops are willing to put their lives on the line for this community?

At the slightest threat of any harm, they pull out their guns and shoot.

IMO, cops should have no guns.

Sure, that will make the job more dangerous and the macho right wingers will not want to apply. So what. Jobs are hard to find, these days, and there will be a ready supply of MEN willing to do this job without a gun.

Note the reaction of the guy who I think made the call to the police. I figure he thought they were just going to detain and arrests a guy who took a couple of drinks without paying. Now, he will have to live with the fact that his call resulted in this man being gunned down over a couple of coffees.

I also note that the man who I think called the police was willing and able to stand face to face with this “threat” and argue. He did not have a gun or did not seem to feel he was in any way in a situation wherein he needed lethal force to save his life.

do these officers understand they SHOOT unarmed people and a fella with a tiny knife that did NOT lung at them or flail about just this week and then THEY are pointing loaded weapons at innocent people? they shoot people for far LESS than they are DOING to all of us……..

Hi everyone! I’ve been dealing with hip, back and knees and now pain radiating down arm to fingers.
I just heard on Fox that Big Mike beat the officer up so badly that another officer had to take him to the hospital. He had a fracture around his eye. I flipped the channel to see if anyone else was reporting that.

From eyewitness accounts fogencopper left the scene in his own vehicle, which is something I have a problem with considering he claimed Mike Brown was assaulting him inside of it and a shot was fired from inside. It should have remained as part of the crime scene for techs to process.

It’s possible that once he got back to the station (or where ever) and they decided on the assault story, he had someone take him to the hospital. But, no hospital records or photos have been released. Seems as if the officer was so badly beaten the chief would have released an injury report and incident report to the public to calm down the protesters. I’m not buying it.

I wouldn’t be in the least surprised. (facepalm)
There’s a video showing them loading MB into a black SUV. It’s sitting right next to a white SUV slanted across both lanes, app 35 ft from MB’s body. There is no ambulance on site. So I think you have more accurate info than I did. I don’t think I should post the video. You can see Mike Brown in the street when you post it. It’s embedded in the article linked below, or you can c/p “mike brown, ferguson missouri! loading the body in a SUV” in the search on youtube. Warning – Graphic Video, Graphic Language, NSFW!

I think that what ultimately happened in the Trayvon Martin case has helped lead a lot of people to say:

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! and “NOT ONE MORE!” and that is going to make this case a lot harder for the combined racist forces to get away with their fecal matter. The smell is already past the “air freshener” stage.

National Guard Member Used Racial Slur Talking To CNN Producer “Never Know What Ferguson N-Words Will Do
Via Rawstory reports:

CNN host Don Lemon, who has spent recent days reporting from Ferguson, recalled on Tuesday that a member of the National Guard had called protesters the n-word.

During a CNN town hall event about the racial divide in the U.S., an African-American member of the audience asked what safeguards could be put in place to prevent officers from overreacting when dealing with black men.

“If there’s a camera, he knows he’s got to check himself,” Jackson explained. “And if you know an officer has a camera, you also have to check yourself.”

Lemon pointed out that body cameras could also make a certain “type of person” think twice before going into law enforcement in the first place.

“I’m just going to be honest with you,” Lemon recalled. “Last night, one of my producers said that they — I won’t say if it’s a he or a she because I don’t want to give anyone a way — said that they came in contact with one of the members of the National Guard. And that they said, ‘You want to get out of here because you’re white. Because these n-words, you know, you never know what they’re going to do.’”

“True story. I kid you not,” the CNN host lamented. “2014, a member of the National Guard, and my producer doesn’t lie.”

It’s us against them. That’s what I get from this entire police state situation. From the 17-year police veteran who wrote a New York Times piece saying we’d better do what he says or get hurt; to the Ferguson Police Officer “GoPhuggYourself” willy-nilly pointing weapons at citizen journalists and directly telling them that he would kill them.

i dont think there will be an arrest……this is the government putting itself on trial……just like in the fogen case to prosecute him exposes the entire corrupt system prime example they did NOT interview eye witnesses that day and some still have no been interviewed…..also some eyewitnesses FEAR speaking thinking the same thing will happen to them, they SAW a cold blooded murder and know it could happen to them.

You remember Fogen, don’t you? The same guy that followed that 17 year old kid in the dark with two flashlights and a loaded KelTek, but no! He wasn’t following, he was looking for an address number as he was going in the same direction as the kid.

“The kid who was hiding in the bushes, waiting for me…” Where? There’s no bushes he could have hidden behind.

“He stole on me and pushed me to ground!” Conveniently in the direction that you said he went (40 ft) – again you weren’t following him but you knew exactly where he went.

And don’t forget the big one. “He went for the gun that was holstered behind me, as I was laying on my back. So instead, I shot him (with a third arm) and he said, ‘Damn, you got me…'”

“But alas, I didn’t know that I shot him so jumped on him and made sure, but stretching his arms out to see if he had any weapons that he didn’t get to use when he ambushed me.”

I guess what I am saying is that those who believed him give rise to the premise that racism is some sort of mass mental problem.

This seems like a good place to post that HP has an article that cites several studies, including at least one longitudinal study that show a CAUSAL, not correlational link between low IQ/low intelligence and racism.

But scientists have over time solved these problems, and the key finding has held up: Empirical evidence has consistently linked low intelligence with prejudice.
[…]
The empirical evidence supports this link, too. Low intelligence and “low effort thinking” are strongly linked to right-wing attitudes, including authoritarianism and conservative politics. And again, there appears to be a demonstrable causal link: Studies have found, for example, that children with poor mental skills grow up to be strongly right-wing adults.

On another note – Limbaugh has apparently decided that the President has blown up Ferguson to distract from Benghazi. Normally, I wouldn’t post something so blatantly political here, but I couldn’t resist the chance to juxtapose it against the quotes from the article… :p

“Empirical evidence has consistently linked low intelligence with prejudice.”
That doesn’t appear to be true from my experience. It appears to correlate between conservatives and prejudice – Fox News, the TreeHouse – and that appears to correlate with politics (conservative) and religion. The church supports conservatism.
The conservatives I know are very intelligent – Pharmacist, two-star general, engineer, nurse anesthetist…. Conservatives will usually side with the Police officer here until proven wrong.
I’ve finally come to the conclusion is that the way a person views the world (conservative vs liberal) is based on genetic makeup – it’s born into the person. In my immediate family, they are all conservative – and I am so different (liberal). Engineers, military, police and nurses are professions coming to mind whose members tend to be conservative. When a conservative follows the Ferguson shooting – I believe they actually see it as supporting the cop until proven otherwise.
This conservative view could also come from going to church and reading the bible. There is anti-Semitism in the bible, masters and slaves. The slaves are supposed to obey their masters. Blacks were slaves. Obey, obey. The conservatives are even very prejudiced against liberals and say liberals are godless. Remember Obama – where is his birth certificate, the Reverend Wright, Obama’s muslim.

J4TMinATL asked what I do. A helpful question would be what I’ve done:
1. Worked at Hewlett Packard – lots of engineers with software background.
* Two Brothers are engineers.
* Also worked as a temp at Rockwell Collins international.
Noticed that many of the engineers had blue eyes and were left-handed.
2. Went to Vanderbilt school of nursing in the heart of the bible belt.
3. After junior year at college, spent a month in the military as part of their recruitment program for WACs.
Son-in-law was a drill sergeant.
Brother is retired two-star general.
Experience:
During Dessert Storm, I spent two months at Fort Jackson. I walked into the hospital to the second floor. A man came up and sat down (black man) eating an ice cream cone. I commented, not very good security here. I just walked in. He replied, I am security – would you like part of my ice cream cone? and smiled. I told him I had just decided to go to nursing school and was interested in looking at the hospital environment. He offered to give me a tour.
On thing he said as we went through the tour stuck with me. “Support the system at all costs.” That said it all – you don’t whistle-blow, mention faults etc.
Observation: I notice that many careers have uniforms resembling the military – police, pilots.

Studies do show a difference between the brains of “conservatives” and “liberals”, so genetics are involved, as you’ve stated. That said, I’m certainly not going to question your experience. I know intelligent conservatives as well, though they tend to consider themselves fiscally conservative and socially moderate. Everyone falls on a continuum. I think it’s probably important to note the article doesn’t use the term “conservative”, they use terms like “rigidity” and “strongly right wing” and “right wing ideologies”. I guess the question is do the correlations you note spring from the cause the researchers found? You say not in your experience. I’m certainly not going to dispute that.

i have never had a racist thought that i can recall, i always understood skin color alone says NOTHING about the individual, i also see and saw the racism in my peers daily…….without giving a number my IQ fell into the top 1% when tested by the USAF…..just like the fogen case all of the science supports the VICTIM, NOTHING backs or backed either of their silly beat down stories……but clearly many people buy their line of BS hook line and sinker.

Yes, many do fall for it, even as you state the science doesn’t support it. I’ve never been prejudiced against race/ethnicity. I can’t be. Besides the fact that it makes no sense to me, it would involve a large degree of self-hate since I’m Black, Native American, European, and Filipino, the only people I could hate would be Hispanic people, which is kind of dumb. There are many things I dislike about people: bigotry, lack of empathy, intellectual laziness/dishonesty, hypocrisy among them. But these are individual traits. I could never dislike someone simply for their membership in a group they had no choice of being born into.

I noticed a big increase in rightwing trolls on Twitter circulating the “x-ray” of Fogencopper’s orbital injury and messages from Fogen’s playbook today.

Hopefully this won’t work as well in MO as it did in FL. Not to mention there will be far more solidarity across the country by groups who already protest on a regular basis about police killings and police brutality and who are none too happy about the Fogen verdict.

Yes, I’m afraid that there won’t be an indictment by local officials. That must be why petitions are already lined up and ready, according to Shaun King’s account. Here we go again, buckle your seat belt.

every one of my incoming and outgoing phone calls are monitored and recorded for “quality” by my employer; there are screen shots, time assessments and other micro-managing techniques.
the technology is there for on-body police cameras.
our conduct and behaviors are positively affected, or at least, there is recourse to determine how conversations and actions took place during events.
it is high time officers of the law are held accountable and are monitored by the available technology.

Ha, I would not be surprised if there was some manual on how to get away killing AA teens, that only the Jakes would have access to. Maybe Fogen got the gist of this secret manual through his ride-alongs with the cops.

On Wednesday, Aug. 20, the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri faxed a letter to Colonel Ron Replogle, superintendent of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, asking him to identify and remove a police officer who demonstrated an inability to perform appropriately in Ferguson on Tuesday, Aug. 19. The officer pointed an assault weapon at civilians and threatened to kill them. When asked to identify himself, the officer responded with profanity.

“This officer’s actions heighten the tension surrounding Ferguson,” said Tony Rothert, legal director of the ACLU of Missouri. “I am hopeful that Col. Replogle will respond swiftly because this behavior is contrary to the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s effort to build positive relations with the community.”

That’s also the window to the mob mentality that those policemen must have in Ferguson. Normally, one should not be paid to perform any profession that would allow that type of disrespect. Especially the police.

I though pointing a gun and saying “I will shoot you” is the crime of assault?

Pointing a gun also violates every military rule in the book that I am aware of with respect to the proper use of a fire arm.

I mean the guy on the other end of that barrel can logically assume that he is in imminent danger of bodily harm that can lead to loss of his life and, as such, has the right to respond with deadly force.

That said, sane people who wear a uniform do everything possible to eliminate mental ass-wipes with guns who could cause an incident which results in the loss of innocent lives.

Most white internet commenters believe that blacks own everything, including the judicial system, federal government and all corporations, and that the odds are overwhelmingly stacked against them, as whites.

Because blacks protest murder and Native Americans won’t let them keep their racist football team names.

Wow, the entirety of the 20th century was characterized by the mostly successful exclusion of a black person from owning real estate in parts of the USA that were designated whites-only. Today, the biggest factor in the disparity of net worth between blacks and whites, when the 1%ers are excluded, is real estate.

Steeeeeerike one.

And the clearly racially biased enforcement of drug laws cause a felony conviction for blacks at rates four time that of whites, although studies that use proper random sampling show that white and blacks consume illegal drugs at about the same rate. A felony conviction closes the door on getting most well-paying jobs.

Steeeeerike two

And the biggest issue of the 18th century was whether or not whites had the rights to own blacks and claim the fruit of any labor a black they owned as their own – you know – “we built this country”.

Streeeerike three.

Those white internet commentator think post-racial is when blacks and American Indians act in the “proper” way that “enlightened” whites define for them.

That is heart breaking seeing a 14 year old ask the question AM I NEXT? Bill I never thought race would still be an issue in 2014. The racist make me embarrassed and ashamed to be white. Whenever a crime has been committed against me it’s been by a white person, but if you listen to the racist the only criminals are black. Smh

I’m white, actually, a shade of peach :-). I’ve been astounded by the number of people that I know and care about whose whole demeanor changes when the topic of people who do not look the same or are of a non-Christian religion is brought up. The arrogance and/or fear is so unfounded. It’s irrational. The longer the conversation, the more the arrogance and/or fear turns to expressions of hatred. I just don’t understand it.

I have an unfinished discussion with a HS student about why Blacks cannot be racist, but they can be biased based on skin color or culture or whatever. Racism requires a power structure to enforce a bias. Bias without a power structure is just bias, not racism.

MB had choices when he heard gunfire. Wonder if MB would have been better off hitting the ground while his back was to the cop. I’m sure blacks are always looking for better strategies for better outcomes.
With a military type “Hit the ground”, there could be no charge of “bums rush”. It would be more difficult for the cop’s shots to hit MB. If there was a fatal shot, the wounds would show up on an autopsy diagram in the posterior plane – “Shot while running away” or hitting the ground.
The cop might also think “I got him” and begin to approach with no further gunshots.

Even if we assume the animal-racist “bum rush” story is true, killer cop Darren Wilson also had options upon being bum rushed, including subduing the unarmed teen using his training, or calling for backup/help.

It doesn’t take long to satisfy a grand jury that probable cause exists to believe that a suspect has committed a crime when hearsay and irrelevant evidence are admissible and there is no cross examination.

By contrast, most federal grand juries serve 18-month terms and meet once per month.

They just ended for today at 1pm local time. . So, once a week and half days at that. This will drag out for months. No sense of urgency or priority whatsoever. This prosecutor is so out of touch with what’s going on, it’s not even funny and may end up being tragic.

The prosecutor is NOT out of touch; this is a carefully orchestrated way to get rid of the Feds. “The Grand Jury is considering this” is a method of deflecting investigation from above. Just watch. The crowd goes home. The case goes cold. The killer comes home and gets another commendation (or maybe, first, a transfer).

I hope the crowd never goes home on this one; this should be the last one. Even if they charge, arrest, convict and sentence Wilson for the crime, that is not enough. You have a gerrymandered community that is Black ruled by a white minority that sees its mission as controlling the criminal tendencies of their “folks.” They control them by the general threat and disrespect method: pulling up and saying “Get the fuck on the sidewalk” or the like. Who ever recommended THAT as a method of serving and protecting anyone? This is the model for the neofeudalistic society we are becoming. When the “commoners” rise up, you need to put them down with great energy and a show of force; otherwise they will challenge your authority. And blame all the violence on THEM, on THEIR violent temperament and THEIR bad behavior.

If he thinks people will move on and forget about what happened, he may be in for a big surprise.

Actually, it’s grossly irresponsible for him to put it off that long. This is not a complicated case with a lot of witnesses and a mountain of evidence that has to be processed in a forensic lab.

No good reason exists to delay going to the grand jury.

Should have been done today, next week at the latest.

Simple issue to decide: whether there is probable cause to believe that the officer’s use of deadly force was reasonably necessary to prevent death or serious injury to another person.

Since MB was unarmed and his body was found 35 feet from the officer’s vehicle, which is where MB stopped and turned around, MB did not rush toward the officer and he was not in any danger when he shot MB multiple times.

The “friend” said that Michael and his friend ran together and turned together. She doesn’t know that they didn’t run together and that it was only Mike that was in the street. Her story is hearsay so she can’t be a trial witness. She’s part of the spin.

If there’s a charge and a trial, there will be a cartoon video just like they played for the six female idiot-liars on July 13, 2013 in the Fogentrial. They’ll make a cartoon video of this huge terrifying Black man trying to murder a cop while he sat innocent in his car, and then leaping back and running away at the speed of light, and then turning, head down, bumrushing (WTF IS “bumrushing” anyway?) while the poor cop tries to stop him with bullet after bullet. Distraught, threatened, “shitting bricks” and fearing for his life, the poor cop accidentally self-defensively kills the bumrushing criminal and from then on, all the cigars in Ferguson are safe from strong-arm robbery. Amen. The little cartoon video will be in color and the cop’s face will be all puffed out and bruised. The “friend” and Mike Brown will be running like synchronized swimmers. The music will be from the 1812 Overture.

BUMRUSHED!
Ahh, the irony of that word being used in a police brutality-type situation. Kelly Thomas was a “bum” that was “rushed” by cops and killed by them. On the other hand, a killer cop used the word to describe his narrative of the victims’ actions while he (the cop) offended the rights of that victim.

Excuse me, Mr. Wilson. I always thought “bum-rushing” meant like when you rush a poor homeless bum. Cops tend to do that from time to time. It must be like cow-tipping to them.

I could be mistaken, but from what the legal commentators were saying yesterday, hearsay is allowed in a grand jury. It is solely up to the prosecutor. I think the Prof has a link to grand jury articles. I’m going to read up.

In this case though, the prosecutor may not use the “friend”. He’s already taken it to another level by INVITING the officer, himself, to speak. They also said it is that is extremely rare, and generally when done, it is implicitly understood that it is because the prosecutor wants a “no bill”.

Bettykath – I know you specified “trial” witness. I jumped a step. I don’t believe it will come to that. She could potentially go before the grand jury.

We live in a different world where grand juries have become little more than rubber stamps signing off on indictments proposed by prosecutors. This is not surprising since grand juries meet in secret without a judge to supervise the proceedings. Hearsay is permitted because the rules of evidence do not apply and the targets of their investigations are not present. The absence of judicial oversight and the exclusion of suspects and their lawyers from participation in the process permits prosecutors to rig the outcome.

And, the prosecutor has invited the officer to tell his side. So, she would (potentially) corroborate whatever he said, giving the grand jury an excuse to no bill, and the prosecutor an excuse to not prosecute, and never go to trial.

Perhaps the Prof might touch on the implications of what it means when a prosecutor actually invites a potential defendant to speak to the grand jury? Isn’t that usually the opposite of what a prosecutor, who really intends to prosecute, does?

I believe the outcome of the grand jury will be rigged to issue a no-bill because the district attorney appears to be a racist and pro-police.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is scheduled to be in Ferguson today. I think he needs to assert federal jurisdiction over the case and kick the Ferguson PD and St.Louis County District Attorney’s Office off the case.

Perhaps the Prof might touch on the implications of what it means when a prosecutor actually invites a potential defendant to speak to the grand jury? Isn’t that usually the opposite of what a prosecutor, who really intends to prosecute, does?

Use of the word “invite” instead of “subpoena” suggests informality, as if to reassure the officer that he will be among friends.

They are not treating him like he is a target of the investigation. They aren’t even treating him like he is a suspect.

Though Orange County, Cali put Kelly Thoma’s killers (cops) through a trial, they only did so after dogged determinination by the community to get the cops arrested and tried. You can see how that turned out. Prosecutors don’t want to convict cops because it shines a light on the entire corrupt judicial system that supports police brutality.

The “white liberal” version I heard about the Trayvon Martin case was: “That was a tragedy but nobody could tell what really happened; it was just a wannabe cop and a wannabe thug and it ended up the perfect storm, but then Sharpton got into it and made a federal case.”

Such an idea is stupid, but it really let me understand why our country is in the situation we’re in: mental laziness, emotional cowardice. We are Rome. I’ll be gone before we fall.

Now I have heard from “normal” whites that: (a) we don’t know what happened; (b) police HAVE TO protect all those businesses from the MANY criminals who are using this as an excuse to loot and steal and burn; (c) the fact that no police report was filed by the shooter is just a “technicality”; (d) blah; (e) blah; (f) blah…

Anyone who believes the “bum rush” idiocy is racist or has immediate reason to lie (they work for FPD or know Darren “Racist Killer” Wilson.

It’s like the Trayvon doubling back / “homie” / concrete argument, which sadly many “center-left” racist “liberals” bought into quite willingly. Even in my own conversations last year with young white professional males – who by and large (90% I would guess) were friends of mine and identify as “liberal” – I would say that about half agreed that it was self defense or that they’d do the same thing if they had to “defend their home” or family or other nonsense.

If you think that high school kids are in the habit of attacking gun-wielding psychos, then you’ve been watching too many Schwarzenegger movies.

I think in some ways it’s similar – though far more brutal and actually even more cut and dry – to Trayvon’s death in that Darren “Kid Killer” Wilson knew he had to silence his victim so the truth would not come out. So rather than facing the music that he was excessive and violated protocol by going after these jaywalking teens, he decided there would have to be no music to face and he executed Brown to silence him.

I agree. The way Wilson paced around MB’s body is remarkably similar to Zimmerman did the same, based on the witnesses. Were their minds running a million miles an hour, along similar lines, how to craft their story to fit as closely as possible to the physical evidence, at least enough to create self defense/reasonable doubt? I think so.

i thank llmpapa for that, but must say the moment i heard that 35 feet bumrush story i pointed out it is NOT possible based on the physical evidence…….that story is one the police coordinated, they knew that 35 feet distance but lacking intelligence they didnt think their story through…… and i know it was planned and talked about because all of them repeating the story used the same 35 feet number…….independent estimates of distance would vary a small bit…..coordinated effort would have the same number.

I posted previously I didn’t think FPD were all that bright, based on them setting a foundation for “aggravating circumstances” under the statute, should this (remotely) possibly become a murder one-death penalty case. I’m revising that.

I think they just don’t care. I believe they’re (with the approval of the DA) following the Sanford PD/O’Mara playbook, attempting to poison they jury pool with anything predisposed jurors can use to justify to themselves and their friends, as to why they don’t indict/convict. It doesn’t have to make sense because, well… black. Unfortunately, we can show all the holes in their story wide enough to drive a truck through, but if the DA doesn’t show those holes to the jury, it doesn’t mean anything.

This is JMO, but I believe this prosecutor will be every bit as complicit as Corey. Based on the lack of confidence from the community drawn from experience, the elected officials calling for him to step down, the standing relationship between any prosecutor and law enforcement he must work with and the fact that his father was a cop killed by a black man – I’d be flabbergasted if his office gave this case any more than basic lip service. How I WISH this was a case being tried by a Kym Worthy “don’t care who you are”- type prosecutor.

Also,remember, the jury pool is not drawn from Ferguson (67% black), it’s drawn from the county (70% white). So there’s that.